Peril in Parel: Pedestrians walk on roads

People new to Mumbai always call it a pedestrian-friendly city, given how Mumbaikars walk to and from the railway stations, and prefer walking to driving. 

However, road expansions, encroachments and development works have taken the footpaths away from pedestrians. In the last decade, Lower Parel and the neighbouring localities have emerged as the prime central business district of the city, and see a floating population of around 2 lakh. 

The area is flanked by plush corporate parks and imposing glass facades. However, the roads outside reveal glaring violations of the Indian Road Congress' code for walkable footpaths.

Illegal parking blocks access to several footpaths outside stations, while small stores and their customers occupy much of the remaining walking space. 

Hurdles like electric boxes and hawkers galore on the footpaths mean pedestrians have very little space to actually walk on. Whatever is left of the footpaths are also in a bad shape, in urgent need of repairs, including uprooted paver blocks and the height of footpaths also flouting set guidelines.

As a result of these violations, pedestrians are forced to walk on the roads, obstructing the flow of traffic and hurting vehicular movement.